Thursday, January 9, 2014

Organize It - How to Tame the Laundry Beast


Getting the laundry done has always been my biggest problem area when it comes to keeping things up around the house. I DO NOT LIKE DOING LAUNDRY, and have been really bad at it for years.

Sidenote: I do not have a laundry room. My washer and dryer are in our garage, and all of our bedrooms are upstairs. 

I have tried to follow the "do a load a day" approach, but it resulted in laundry that was started in the morning and left to sour because I forgot about it. I got tired of rewashing all of the laundry. The most common practice has been to wash several loads and then pile the clean clothes on my bed upstairs or on the love seat in the den until I got back around to it. Taking it upstairs and dumping it on the bed was not working. I rarely go upstairs during the day, so I basically forgot about it until it was time for bed. It is hard to go to bed when your bed is covered in 8 loads of laundry that need to be folded and put away. The same thing happens when I let it pile up on the love seat. I would let it sit and then we didn't have a place to sit down in the den.

I was tired of the laundry rut. I knew it was time to create a system that worked form me.

I knew that I wouldn't be able to get away with doing laundry just once a week. I decided to try having 2 designated laundry days per week. I have these days added to my weekly cleaning schedule and they are written in my planner every week. I do all of the laundry on Monday and on Thursday. I also do all of our sheets on Thursdays. It takes SEVERAL loads, but it gets us through the week and weekend with clean clothes. I have been doing this for a few months now, and it has been the best system that I have had. It is so nice to know that everyone has clean clothes when they need them. No more, do you have work clothes for tomorrow?

Here are a few tips that have made a world of difference for me.

1. I fold the clothes as SOON as they come out of the dryer. If I am where I can head upstairs to put them away I do. If not, they are put into a basket and taken upstairs the next time I go upstairs and put away.

2. My boys wear their pjs more than one time. They take a bath every other day, and know that they get clean pjs on bath night.

3. The clothes that we wear to church on Sunday morning are hung back up when we get home from church as long as we don't go out to lunch. We don't really dress up, so the clothes that we had on for two hours can be worn again later in the week.

4. I wear my jeans 2 or 3 times before I wash them.

5. I delegate when needed. Cade is in charge of making sure their laundry is taken to the garage on laundry days. If I am busy doing other things, Cade and Henry put their clothes away after I fold them. (I had to get over their drawers being super neat, but I do straighten them when I put their clothes away.)

6. If we have had an odd week and the laundry doesn't get done, Asher helps me catch it up. He used to do this frequently when I was bad at laundry. 

I still don't enjoy laundry, but I have found my laundry groove. What about you? What kind of system do you use to tame the laundry beast at your house?

Linking this post to:

The Pearl Blog - All Things Pretty Part-ay
Liz Marie Blog
House of Rose
Blissfully Ever After
Love of Home and Family
Tatertots and Jello
I Heart Nap Time
Lil' Luna
Somewhat Simple
Today's Creative Blog
Suburbs Mama


1 comment:

  1. Great tips, Nikki! I also have my kids wear pjs for two nights in a row and I try to wear my jeans several times before washing them. When you think of it these little steps really do save a lot of laundry!

    ReplyDelete

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